Apparatus for the removal of railway rails from pavement



March 2, 1943. w sTlEFEL 2,312,937

APPARATUS FOR THE REMOVAL OF RAILWAY RAILS FROM PAVEMENT Filed Dec. 10, 1942 INVENTOR flea. Wfii fel ATTORNEYS Patented Mar. 2, 1943 APPARATUS Fo rHE REMOVAL or RAIL- WAY RAILS FROM PAVEMENT Fred W.- Stiefel, Milton-on-Hudson, N. Y., as-

signor of one-fourth to Daniel L. Morris, New

York, N. Y.

Application December 10, 1942 Serial No. 468,588

2 Claims.

This invention relates to the rapid removal of railway rails from pavement in which they are embedded and from the ties on which they are supported, and with the minimum mutilation of the pavement and without disturbing the ties to any material extent. The estimated tonnage of abandoned street railway rails that are embedded in pavement throughout the United States is, according to published reports, several hundred thousand tons. The need for the rapid reclamation of this steel for use in war material is known to be urgent. This reclamation has already begun, but the method now in use for removing the rails from the pavement is slow and expensive.

As is known, a section of railway rail includes a head, a web and a flange, all of which, except substantially the upper surface of the head, are embedded in the pavement. Itis common practice when laying railway rails such as street rail way rails, to either bolt or weld the sections to-' gether so that for long stretches they become substantially a continuous structure secured to the base or ties on which they rest usually by spikes or clamps.

These rail sections may be pulled vertically from the pavement in which they are embedded but, unless precaution is taken to protect theportions of the pavement adjacent the rails and to hold the ties in place, the pavement will be unduly mutilated by being loosened and broken away for substantial areas that extend laterally of the rails.

It has been proposed to lift the rails by various forms of derricks which grip and lift a rail at one point, and then move along to another point for a new gripping and lifting operation. This step by step removal has proved to be slow and expensive and, according to published reports, removes only about a half a mile of street railway rails from the pavement in a day;

The principal object of the present invention is to rapidly remove the rails from the pavement with the minimum mutilation of the adjacent portions of the pavement and without materially disturbing the cross ties; The result is the rapid reclamation of the rails (I have actually removed more than one half of a mileof rail in one hour by the herein described apparatus).

Other objects of the invention will appear as the description progresses and it is, therefore, thought unnecessary to here point them out in detail.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is alongitudinal sectionalview of an apparatus by which the objects described may be carried out;

Figure 2 is an end of the same; and

Figure 3 is a transverse sectional view showing the relative positions of the rail and the apparatus.

The manner of lifting rails includes, broadly, the pus-hing of the rails from the pavement by a force exerted upwardly beneath and on the rails and at the same time causing thatforce to react on the surface of the adjacent pavement to prevent its mutilation beyond a controllable margin laterally of the flanges of the rail.

Mechanically a portion of a rail from the pavement is lifted to a point above the surface of the pavement. This lifting may be accomplished by any suitable means such, for instance, as a jack.-

Following thelifting of this portion of the rail; a bar is placed transversely beneath that lifted portion and then is drawn, still in its transverse position, in a direction longitudinally of the rail so that it exerts an upwardforce on the flange of the rail, causing the latter to be pushed or stripped from the pavement.

Simultaneously two preferably relatively long pressure plates which are placed longitudinally of the rail and substantially parallel thereto and spaced apart only sufficient to permit the flange ofthe rail to' pass between them during itsupward movement, are pulled longitudinally of the rail in contact with the upper surface of the pavement so that they always extend in advance of and to the rear'of the point where the rail is actually leaving the pavement or ties. The bar which has hereinbefore been referred to is carried by and moved with these pressure plates so that the upward force which is exerted by the bar on the rail is translated into a downward force which exerts its pressure on the pressure plates, throughout substantially their entire lengths, which plates in turn exert their pressure on the surface of the pavement. The pressure plates and bar are drawn simultaneously and, preferably, continuously for a given distance'longitudinally of the rail so that the rail will be stripped from the pavement in a continuous progression and the trench that is formed by the stripping of the rail from the pavement will be relatively narrow and caused to have substantially straight edges by the pressure plates.

' allel to each other'wit-h their inner edges; spaced An apparatus which I have designed to carry out this operation includes a pair of pressure plates A, which are arranged substantially par slightly greater than the width of the flange of the railway rail. These plates A are in the form of inverted T-beams in the embodiment that I have disclosed and include upwardly extending webs I. The forward and rearward ends of the pressure plates are turned upwardly as at 2 to facilitate the drawing of the plates along the surface of the pavement.

A frame is secured to-the webs I of the pressure plates adjacent the forward and rear ends thereof and extends upwardly from the pressure plates. This frame includes a pair of beams 4 that are secured at 5 adjacent the forward ends of the pressure plates and which extend upwardly and rearwardly in angular relation to the pressure plates as shown. A second pair of. beams 6 is secured by means I to the webs I adjacent the rear ends of the pressure plates. These beams 4 and 6 are secured together at their upper ends at 8 and are suitably braced by transverse bracing 9 and vertical bracing III. A block and fall II is mounted on an axle I2 that extends between the upper ends of the beams 4 and 6 and is provided with means I3 by which the end of the rail may be gripped for initial raising.

The vertical webs I of the pressure plates are provided with pairs of oppositely located bearing openings I4. A bar I5, preferably in the form of a roller, is adapted to be mounted in any pair of these bearing openings I4.

I also provide a bar I6 that extends between the beams 5 and above the bearing openings I4. This bar is preferably of bent form such as disclosed in the drawing so that when the rail rests thereon it will tend to be centered between the pressure plates A.

However, if the bar I5 is located to the rear of the bar I6, as for instance in the rear pair of bearing openings I4, the bar I6 will be carried by a framing II that may be secured to the rear ends of the pressure plates as indicated in construction lines in the drawing.

A source of power for pulling the apparatus forwardly, such as a tractor or truck T, is attached to the pressure plates by suitable means l8 such as a. chain or cable.

In carrying out the objects of the invention with this apparatus the pressure plates are arranged substantially parallel to the rail and on opposite sides thereof with the end of the rail or that portion which it is desiredto initially raise located substantially beneath'the block and fall. The block and fall is then attached to the rail and the cable I9 that extends from the block and fall is attached to a source of power which, operating through the block and fall, will lift the rail until the flange is sufficiently raised to permit the bar I5 to be slipped thereunder. The bar I5 is then slipped under the freed portion of the rail and the block and fall released from the rail and also'from the source of power.

The truck or other source of power T then moves forwardly and as it does so the bar I5 exerts its pressure progressively forwardly on the rail and on the underside of the rail so that the rail is lifted from the pavement and from the ties to which it may be secured.

When the bar I6 is used the rail will ride over this bar and be substantially centered thereby. Thus some of the weight of the bar will be supported and the tendency of the rail to break, or of the splices between the rail sections to break, will be diminished. Moreover the ten-.

dency of the rail to whip will be decreased.

Moreover, because of the downward pressure exerted by the pressure plates A, the portion of the pavement which remains in place will not be loosened or mutilated and the cross ties will be held in place. Thus the follow-up operation of filling in the trench produced by the removal of the rail will leave an effective and sightly job and one which will not detract from the efficiency of the restored pavement.

I have said that the bar I5 may be mounted selectively in opposing pairs of the bearing openings. This is for the following purpose. If the pavement is of relatively small resistance the bar advance of the point where the rail contacts the bar I5. If the pavement, however, is of great resistance to the removal of the rail the bar I5 should be moved closer to the point where the pavement breaks. Therefore, when I encounter a pavement of great resistance I, preferably, move the bar I5 forwardly toward the forward end of the apparatus and mount it in the proper opposing pair of bearing openings E4 to decrease the possibility of breaking the rail.

Of course the application of the power which is used to pull the apparatus forwardly should be parallel with the pavement or at a slight angle thereto to overcome the tendency of the forward end of the apparatus to rise.

The frame 4-6 transfers the force developed at the point of contact between the rail and the bar with which it is engaged forwardly to adjacent the forward ends of the pressure plates, with the result that the force which the pressure plates exert upon-the surface of the pavement is distributed throughout the plates and incidentally the forward ends of the plates are prevented from rising.

If desired the bar I5 may be engaged beneath the rail, not only by initially lifting the rail as I have described, but also by trenching out around the rail and slipping the bar beneath the rail while the latter remains in its old position, but I have found it convenient and expeditious to lift the rail in the manner that I have described either at its ends or between its ends.

If it is lifted between its ends or if the operation of stripping starts between the ends of a rail two apparatuses of the type that I have above described may be simultaneously used, one travelling in each direction longitudinally of the rail.

Not only does this invention result in the rapid reclamation of railway rails without unduly destroying the pavement but they are recovered in such condition that they may be re-rolled and again used as rails.

I have heretofore pointed out that, according to the published reports, the most rapid reclamation of rails today is at the rate of about a mile a day. Actually I have reclaimed rails with the use of one apparatus herein described, at the rate of approximately one-half a mile an hour. This is not the ceiling of removal so far as the reclamation of rails is concerned, and the rapidity of removal has, in my experience, been controlled by the rapidity with which the trenches may be repaved.

While I have illustrated and described a particular embodiment of an apparatus which may be used to carry out my invention, I do not intend to be limited to that apparatus or to the details except insofar as that apparatus or details are defined in the claims.

What I claim is:

1. A movable self-contained device adapted to be continuously dragged forwardly by a tractor while in operation to remove railway rails from pavement without unduly multilating the pavement which includes: a pair of parallel pressure plates spaced from each other slightly greater than the width of the flange of the rail to be removed and adapted to ride on the pavement surface on opposite sides of the rail, a rigid inverted substantially V-frame having forward and rearward legs rigidly connected with the pressure plates and extending upwardly therefrom, and a bar connected with and extending between the pressure plates between the forward and rearward legs of the frame and closer to the rearward legs than to the forward legs and adapted to engage beneath the rail as the device is drawn forwardly 2 to force the rail from the pavement.

2. A movable self-contained device adapted to be continuously dragged forwardly by a tractor while in operation to remove railway rails from pavement without unduly mutilating the pavement which includes: a pair of parallel pressure plates spaced from each other slightly greater than the width of the flange of the rail to be removed and adapted to ride on the pavement surface on opposite sides of the rail, a rigid inverted substantially V-frame having forward and rearward legs rigidly connected with the pressure plates and extending upwardly therefrom, and a bar connected with and extending between the pressure plates between the forward and rearward legs of the frame and closer to the rearward legs than to the forward legs and in close proximity to the pavement engaging faces of the pressure plates and adapted to engage beneath the rail as the device is drawn forwardly to force the rail from the pavement.

FRED W. STIEFEL. 

